16 (4), 2015

Dear TOJDE Readers,
Welcome to the Volume 16, Number 4 of TOJDE,
There are 10 articles and 1 book review in this last issue of 2015. The articles are written by 18 authors from Malaysia, Sultanate of Oman, Thailand and Turkey.

The purpose of present research is to detect cyberbullying, cybervictimization and
cyberbullying sensibility levels of distance education students and analyze these levels
with respect to several variables. The research has been patterned on relational screening
model. Study group consisted of 297 distance education students studying at university in
Marmara region during fall term of 2012-2013 academic year. Data have been obtained
via cyberbullying scale, cybervictimization scale and cyberbullying sensibility scale. In the
analysis of obtained data descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis H and
correlation tests have been utilized. Obtained findings manifested that distance education
students received low scores on cyberbullying and mid level scores from
cybervictimization; that they possess high sensibility towards cyberbullying and there is
statistically meaningful differentiation between cyberbullying and cybervictimization. It
has also been detected that the increase in Internet usage has accelerating effect on
cyberbullying and cybervictimization and that there is correlation between cyberbullying
and cybervictimization. Furthermore it has been revealed that compared to female
students male students are engaged in higher levels of cyberbullying and they become
cybervictimized more frequently.

The majority of M-learning (Mobile learning) applications available today are developed
for the formal learning and education environment. These applications are characterized
by the improvement in the interaction between learners and instructors to provide high
interaction and flexibility to the learning process. M-learning is gaining increased
recognition and adoption by different organizations. With the high number of M-learning
applications available today, making the right decision about which, application to choose
can be quite challenging. To date there is no complete and well defined set of system
characteristics for such M-learning applications. This paper presents system quality
characteristics for selecting M-learning applications based on the result of a systematic
review conducted in this domain.

Alongside the rise of educational technology, many teachers have been taking gradual but
innovative steps to redesign their teaching methods. For example, in flipped learning or a
flipped classroom, students watch instructional videos outside the classroom and do
assignments or engage in activities inside the classroom. Language teachers are one
group of educators exploring the flipped classroom. In foreign language classes, such an
approach may offer great benefits for both the teachers and students since classroom
time can be applied to more interactive tasks. By extending classroom hours in this way,
language teachers can focus on successfully addressing all subjects in the curriculum. The
aim of this study is (a) to gain insights into the perceptions of prospective English
language teachers at a state university in Turkey on flipped classrooms and (b) to
introduce the implementation of a flipped classroom into an English language class. A
total of 47 prospective English teachers participated in the study. Qualitative research
design was used and data were collected via an open-ended question. Findings of the
study indicated that pre-service English teachers had positive perceptions towards the
use of the flipped classroom as an integral part of face-to-face courses. It can be
concluded that flipped classroom was beneficial in terms of 4 categories based on the
content analysis of the responses: learning at one’s own pace, advance student
preparation, overcoming the limitations of class time, increasing the participation in the
classroom. The study also provides recommendations towards LMS integration into
courses in other English language teaching departments and for implementing flipped
classrooms in language teaching.

The current study was conducted to see the effectiveness of using social media to
enhance students’ critical thinking skills. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a 14-week
experimental study was performed with two groups of students. Both groups were
introduced to how to respond to questions based on Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. During
the period of doing the activity, students in the experimental group had to post answers
in Facebook and got feedback from peers and teacher as mutual learning while those in
the control group wrote their replies in papers and submitted them to the teacher in
class. The research instruments used in this study included pre-and post-tests and a
questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using dependent t-tests, independent t-tests,
means, and standard deviations. After the experiment there was a difference in the mean
scores of critical thinking ability between the two groups at the significance level of .05.
The data obtained from the questionnaire manifested students’ positive attitudes
towards English instruction delivered through questioning technique and postings in
Facebook.

In this research, an E-learning environment is developed for the teacher candidates
taking the course on Scientific Research Methods. The course contents were adapted to
one of the constructivist approach models referred to as 5E, and an expert opinion was
received for the compliance of this model. An usability analysis was also performed to
determine the usability of the e-learning environment. The participants of the research
comprised 42 teacher candidates. The mixed method was used in the research. 3 different
data collection tools were used in order to measure the three basic concepts of usability
analyses, which are the dimensions of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. Two of
the data collection tools were the scales developed by different researchers and were
applied with the approval received from the researchers involved.
On the other hand, the usability test as another data tool was prepared by the
researchers who conducted this study for the purpose of determining the participants’
success in handling the twelve tasks assigned to them with respect to the use of elearning
environment, the seconds they spent on that environment and the number of
clicks they performed. Considering the results of the analyses performed within the data
obtained, the usability of the developed e-learning environment proved to be at a higher
rate.

interaction and communication technologies. Indeed, there has been an emerging
movement in the interaction and communication technologies. More specifically, the
growth of Web 2.0 technologies has acted as a catalyst for change in the disciplines of
education. The social networking websites have gained popularity in recent years;
therefore, many research studies have been conducted to explain how the use of social
networking websites for instructional purposes. For the best practices, it is essential to
understand theories associated with social networking studies because related theories
for any subject may provide insights and guideline for professionals and researchers. This
theoretical paper was designed to offer a road map through the literature in relation to
the utilization of social networking websites by presenting main understandings of
theories associated with social networking.
The Uses and Gratification Theory, social network theory, connectives, and constructivism
were selected to serve as a basis for designing social networking studies regarding
instructional purposes. Moreover, common attributes of the theories and specific
application areas were also discussed.
This paper contributes to this emerging movement by explaining the role of these
theories for researchers and practitioners to find ways to beneficially integrate them into
their future research endeavors

This study is primarily focused on assessing the students’ logical thinking and cognitive
levels in an online collaborative environment. The aim is to investigate whether the online
collaboration has significant impact to the students’ cognitive abilities. The assessment of
the logical thinking involved the use of the online Group Assessment Logical Thinking (GALT)
test that has been conducted in two phases; before and after the online collaborative
activities.
The sample of respondents for this study is sixty first year Diploma in Computer Science
students from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Perlis, Malaysia where they were divided
into fifteen collaborative groups. These collaborative groups were then engaged in a 3-hour
session of collaborative activities via the Online Collaborative Learning System (OCLS). The
results for this study has revealed that the online collaborative learning has significant
impact to the students’ logical thinking levels with the increment of 21.7% high logical
thinkers with p-value<0.05 (sig. 2-tailed). Meanwhile, the investigation of the students’
cognitive levels is being done by monitoring the students’ abilities to solve the given
questions via OCLS. The questions have been previously constructed according to the
Bloom’s taxonomy cognitive domain.
The results have also revealed that the students at the early stage of learning programming
are able to solve complex programming problems at the cognitive level Application and
Analysis. There was also a strong correlation between students’ logical thinking skills with
their abilities to solve problems in an online platform with r= 0.631, significant at 0.012.

Head spinning pace of change and development in information and technology has not
yet discredited coursebooks as the major classroom tool and equipment. Coursebooks, as
they have always been, are still the primary source and tool of teaching and learning
process. As with the mainstream education, well-prepared coursebooks and texts are also
a necessity for a high-quality Turkish course within distance education. Distance
education is a legitimate education activity providing opportunities for students, teachers,
and materials located in different places to meet. All the responsibility of teaching within
distance education falls onto the course material. Among the printed materials, it is
almost solely the coursebook and class notes that shoulder this responsibility. Texts
within the current coursebooks should be analyzed in order to depict the current status,
which will help increase the quality of distance education. Designed on the basis of this
need, this study is expected to contribute to teaching Turkish through a realistic analysis
of the texts in Turkish coursebooks studied at Open Education Secondary School (5th, 6th,
7th, and 8th grades). Bearing a descriptive research design, this paper aims to examine
and assess the texts in Turkish coursebooks used in Open Education Secondary School in
terms of genre, topic, and moral lessons. Research data has been collected through
document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods. Each of 96 texts found in
Turkish coursebooks were meticulously analyzed, and findings are presented in frequency
tables.

The recent developments in computer and Internet technologies and in three dimensional
modelling necessitates the new approaches and methods in the education field and brings
new opportunities to the higher education. The Internet and virtual learning
environments have changed the learning opportunities by diversifying the learning
options not only in general education but also in the field of foreign language for
teachers, curriculum designers and students. Many higher education institutions are
employing one of the most widely used virtual worlds the Second Life Platform and are
conducting classes on their virtual campuses, and organize meetings, seminars and
conferences. In this study, it has been aimed to devise and implement learning
applications on the 3D Second Life Platform for the prospective foreign language preservice
teachers of Istanbul University, Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty of Education, English
Language Teaching Department. The study will report a research Project on Second Life
aiming at introducing foreign language pre-service teachers with 3D Virtual Learning
Environments and enabling them to use this environment for language teaching at
Istanbul University, Hasan Ali Yucel Faculty of Education, English Language Teaching
Department. In the scope of the Project, “Comparative Education” class has been
conducted both face to face and in World. The method of the study is descriptive.
Furthermore, a mixed model, where qualitative and quantitative research techniques
have analyzed, has been used. Thus, triangulation of the data has been aimed. In the
study, a description of the project, methodology, results and student work will be given.

With improvements in information technologies, distance education programs have
become widespread. Institutions that offer distance education programs are increasing in
number. Scholars who were used to face-to-face teaching began to give courses in
distance education programs which entail technological teaching methods, a new
teaching experience for the teachers.
Formal education or face-to-face education and distance education have different
dynamics. The transition to distance teaching from the first to the later involves the
transmission of experiences of teaching with technology. For effective distance
education, it is important to analyze the transmission of these teaching experiences. This
study evaluates how faculty members' experiences with technologies in formal education
are transmitted to distance education. Interviews were held with twelve scholars who
have taught both formal and distance learning courses. The interviews were recorded.
Content analysis method was used to obtain a deeper understanding of the data
collected.
It was found that the teaching materials used in the formal and distance educations were
exactly the same. Some faculty members claimed that infrastructure and technical
possibilities of the current system were not sufficient for the use of different teaching
materials. However, this study suggests that teachers' beliefs about educational methods
are the main reason that prevented the use of different teaching materials in distance
education.

This valuable study of McGettigan focus on shifting
educational landscape in the ‘technical side’ of higher
education provision and changes to higher education
institutions. To the Author, governments are taking a
huge gamble with universities, introducing uncertainty
into a stable and productive system. In more general
perspective, the Book covers issues of funding,
marketization, privatization and financialization of higher
education. The main arguments of McGettigan in this
book are; the comprehensive changes in technology,
economy, society and government are inherently
damaging the integrity of higher education system, and
the effects of these changes are being implemented in a
covert manner in order to curtail democratic debate.